Tribe Guard Out With Bad Sprain

CAA Notebook

William and Mary point guard David Cox has a badly sprained left wrist, X-rays taken Tuesday revealed, and he will miss at least tonight's game against Holy Cross.

Tribe coaches feared he had broken a bone in the wrist, which would have ended his season. W&M coach Charlie Woollum said he hoped Cox could return next week and said his effectiveness may hinge on his tolerance of pain.

After tonight, the Tribe plays at Old Dominion on Saturday and then closes Monday at home against George Mason. The Tribe then will play in the CAA Tournament, which begins March 4.

Cox, a 5-foot-11 senior, sat out Monday's 64-57 loss at UNC Wilmington. He hurt the wrist when he landed on it after driving to the basket early in the second half Saturday against East Carolina. He had started all 22 previous games, averaging 8.9 points and handing out a team-high 97 assists.

Senior Kurt Small , who played 40 minutes against UNCW, becomes the point guard. He is the Tribe's leading scorer at 18.2 points per game.

HOME GAME? Old Dominion will play its final home game of the season Saturday against William and Mary at the ODU Field House.

It is the Monarchs' only game this season at the field house. It will be seniors night, and is part of a commemoration of the 20th anniversary of ODU's 1975 Division II national championship team.

ODU coach Jeff Capel admitted he's a creature of habit and prefers not to change home sites, but said, ``It's a great opportunity for our seniors. ... It's going to be a great, great atmosphere. As a coach I can deal with it.''

The Monarchs have practiced at the field house only a couple of times this season. The ODU women practice and play home games at the field house, while the men usually practice in the Athletic Administration Building next door.

GOOD YEAR. With one league game remaining, UNC Wilmington is 10-3 and already has won more CAA games than any of its predecessors.

The Seahawks are assured of finishing no worse than third in coach Jerry Wainwright 's first year. UNCW has won as many as nine CAA games three times, most recently last season when it finished third.

``I'm very lucky that Kevin Eastman left a program that was in good order,'' Wainwright said. ``We have some excellent players and some really quality people. To those kids' credit, they have tried to do what I asked.''

ODD SCHEDULE. Two of James Madison's last four regular-season games are non-conference matchups - Monday's President's Day loss to George Washington and next Monday's season finale against UNC Charlotte.

Those two games mean the Dukes finish the regular season with a stretch of five games in 10 days, which coach Lefty Driesell isn't sure is good or bad.

``That's the only time they would play us,'' Driesell said. ``I'll have to see how we do in the tournament.''

Driesell tries to schedule the best teams he can find, but said of the non-conference games, ``I'd prefer to play them early in the year, but sometimes in scheduling you have to play them when you can get them.''

BRIEFLY. Small is seventh on W&M's career scoring list with 1,422 points. He is 43 points behind sixth-place Bill Chambers with at least four games remaining, including tonight's against Holy Cross. ... George Mason's Keri Chaconas set a new single-game scoring record for both men and women with 51 points in the Patriots' 90-67 victory against East Carolina last week. She broke the old record of 45 points set by David Robinson against JMU in 1987. ... W&M's Aquendine Khasidis scored her 1,000th career point in a 64-54 loss to Richmond. She is third in the league in scoring at 16.1 points per game behind Chaconas (19.1) and ODU's Clarisse Machanguana (17.3).